DX LISTENING DIGEST 00-62, May 8, 2000
edited by Glenn Hauser
{Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only providing
full credit be maintained at all stages. DXLD may not be reposted in
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** ALBANIA. (Glenn,) I'd been hearing R Tirana on 7120 up until this
Mon w/ tremendous QRN (say 21-30 April.) Much different programming
from 20 years ago. Different IS, too -- that's what got me. Had to
sync-det, but that's OK (ICFSW7600G.) Been getting TWR 7120
(Amharic?) 0330-0400 [sometimes no IS.] (Patrick Allen, location
unknown, via DXing.com, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ARGENTINA. What happened to the 29.8 MHz slot? [29810v] After
listening them for once from the very next day the signal was not
there! (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, May 8, DX LISTENING
DIGEST) I checked for this several mornings here, but aside from a
few words one day around 1200, never got it. But this bears much
further checking. The higher the frequency, the more subject to
propagation variation it will be (Glenn Hauser, OK, DXLD)
** BELGIUM [non]. Bonaire must be having more problems. I normally
check only on Sundays for RVI at 2230 on 15565, but May 7 no signal
(nor it seems direct from Belgium, tho Prague was nice on 15545), and
RN Spanish was also missing from 15315 at this hour, but 11715 was
on, from somewhere, strong enough to be Bonaire. Also zilch from RVI
15565 at 0400 May 8 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BHUTAN. From: ``Steve - KF2TI`` {kf2ti@interactive.net}. Subject:
A message from Bhutan. Date: Fri, 5 May 2000 16:52:42 -0400
HIGH BANDS
As most people probably realize, things are going well. Our primary
goal is to give out an all time new country to as many people as
possible, and so far that's working. As I write this we are well past
20,000 QSO's in just over 2 days of operation, with the expected
continental breakdown.
Europe, of course, dominates, as we can work them just about any time
of day - 24 hours. Signals really pick up from about 0800z and our
first peak is at 1200z, with a second at about 1700z.
North America is coming in beautifully from 2230Z-0300Z on 15m and
17m, and again at 1300z-1900Z, and rates are excellent. The 1300z-
1900z opening is usually shared with Europe (we politely ask them to
stand by periodically for NA) while the 2230-0300Z one is exclusively
NA.
Japan is workable throughout the day, and most have no trouble
getting the log. Same goes for South America, which actually is far
easier to work then North America from here. Africa is not a problem
either.
Though our location does not favour VK/ZL and Oceania (we are
slightly blocked by the mountain behind our QTH) these stations are
slowly filling up in our logs. We will make a special effort just for
Oceania towards the middle of next week.
LOW BANDS
We have been on 30m for the past two days, and our totals are into
the thousands - mostly Japan and Europe. North America is harder, but
workable at about 2330z.
Many people in North America are very anxious for the low bands (40
and below), and we understand that this path is not only difficult,
but close to impossible for some areas. On Monday 8 May and Tuesday 9
May we will stay on our 40 and 80m published CW frequencies from
1200-1330z listening exclusively for North America. We will be
calling during this entire time block, so please listen carefully for
any chances we may have. Our 120W power limit is a severe compromise,
but we will not leave without trying. Bear in mind that 1200-1330z is
a peak here to Europe and Japan, and we are releasing two stations
away from many all-time new country seekers to try this.
We are working Europe on 80m and above every night, though we are
going to try for a better antenna location for Japan, as signals are
not strong due to our location. We will know more about this - and a
possible new location to work just Japan - later today.
160M
The Titanex did not go up yesterday due to high winds, but we will
hopefully get it in the air today. At 120W, we expect this to be a
very tough band, but again, we wont leave before trying.
NA on 12M/10M
We are having openings on 12m and 10m to the USA between 1330-1430Z -
especially to W4 which comes in very loud on short path. We will
periodically ask Europe to stand by and listen for NA at this time.
73 James 9V1YC/A52YC (KB8NW/OPDX May 8/BARF80 via John Norfolk,
OKCOK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BOLIVIA. 4716.76, Radio Yura, Yura; Thanks to the hot news
directly sending from RFA, the signal of a new Bolivian station could
be turned in Tokyo, Japan. It was first heard at 1020-1038 with poor
signal on 06/MAY/2000. Playing nice sikuri, kantus and waynos and
talk in Quechua. ID was mentioned as ``... Provincia Quijarro,
Bolivia, 4 de la manana ... Radiodifusora Yura, La Voz del (Layo?).``
Note: Situated on the bank of Yura River, Yura is a small settlement
in the Province of Antonio Quijarro, the Department of Potosi. Yura
itself means in the Quechua word ``shrub``. (Takayuki Inoue Nozaki,
Japan, Relámpago DX Logging, via DXLD)
** CHINA. On May 9, the news department of CRI will report on the
first anniversary of the bombing on Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia by
NATO. An updated frequency list, as well as the current CRI "feature"
programming, can be found on the website below. --Jim China Radio
International/Shortwave http://pw2.netcom.com/~jleq/cri1.htm (Jim,
swprograms via DXLD)
From which, further imminent previews:
On May 8, CRI reporter Kerstine Leitner will file a report on the Hi-
tech Week celebration in Beijing, which began with opening ceremonies
the previous evening.
On May 10, China Horizons will highlight the development of Nanjing ,
the capital of east China's Jiangsu Province. Other areas profiled
include Zhejiang Province, Changzhou City, and Wuxi City. (via gh,
DXLD)
** COLOMBIA. 4895.0, Colombia Estéreo, 0056-0205 May 7, LA pop music
with a few time checks. Patriotic promos for Colombian army. 0203
full canned ID, ``Ésta es Colombia Estéreo 93.4, HJE, desde Bogotá,
el centro capital de Colombia, banda... Colombia Estéreo... cadena
radial de... nacional. Very strong signal. This must be Yimber
Gavaria's Unid from Apr 15. (Mark Mohrmann, VT, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COLOMBIA. Tnx to Mark`s tip, tuned in 4895 a few minutes later
past 0300 UT May 7, but too much noise to make much of it here; did
get a Colombia Stéreo ID taped around 0300. Could be brand new, but
someone should point out that there used to be a 4895 in Colombia, La
Voz del Río Arauca, which last year`s PWBR 2000 said was temporarily
inactive with 10 kW. It could be the old transmitter with a new
network input (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COLOMBIA. Glenn, There is info on Colombia Estéreo at
http://www.ejercito.mil.co/sistema/radio.htm While you are at it, why
not open the main page first; it´s rather unusual, I think. I would
be surprised if they are using the old La Voz del Río Arauca
transmitter which was taken off the air when they realized that they
were putting out strong spurs + - 50 kHz approx. The spurs were very
annoying in Bogotá, which is not precisely in the neighbourhood of
Arauca. 73, (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, May 7, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Strange that the army rather than a commercial enterprise would get
the name Colombia Estéreo. I'll bet it's not AM (or SW) stereo. We
publicized the website http://www.ejercito.mil.co some months ago in
connexion with the SW clandestines. It opens with map animation
finally zeroing in on Colombia. It used to take several minutes but
now more like one minute with my cable modem 73, (Glenn Hauser,
partially to Henrik Klemetz)
I think the name is rather in accordance with the present-day
situation when the Army in one way or another is trying to assume a
"nationwide" role.
The manager of Colombia Stereo is, unless changed, Jimmy García
Camargo, who was previously with Radiodifusora Nacional. I have not
heard Colombia Stereo myself. This stn was not on the air when I was
in the country. 73 (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COLOMBIA. 4895, Colombia Estéreo, May 7, 0235, Tropical LA music.
Canned ID at 0244 UTC, followed by a popsong. New station, heard
thanks to Mark Mohrmann tip via Conexión Digital (oh, the joy of
Email! :-)). 34344
Mark's site is an excellent source of information for LA DXers.
Main page is http://homepages.together.net/~hackmohr/highindex.htm
(Mark Veldhuis, Holland, hard-core-dx via DXLD)
** COLOMBIA. 4895. COLOMBIA STEREO. 2350-0430 May 6. Desde el fin de
semana llega con bastante fuerza la señal de esta nueva emisora
perteneciente al ejército colombiano, captada con un SIO de 555,
retransmitiendo la señal de la estación HJE Colombia Stereo 93.4
desde Bogotá. Según comunicación telefónica con el Sargento Moreno,
Coordinador de la emisora, realizada a las 1100 UTC del Domingo 7 de
mayo, no tenía conocimiento de la frecuencia en onda corta;
posteriormente él me llamó para confirmar que efectivamente se estaba
probando un nuevo transmisor que servirá para el cubrimiento del
territorio nacional y llevará próximamente programación de la Cadena
CREER (Cadena Radial del Ejécito Colombiano). Manifestó desconocer
dónde se encuentra localizado el transmisor, pero según cree se
encuentra en la Base de Apoyo Aerotransportado de Mélgar en el
Departamento del Tolima. Está interesado el reportes via fax al No.
57 1 2407374 aunque también se puede intentar por correo normal a:
Emisora Colombia Stéreo
Escuela de Cadetes José María Córdoba.
Calle 80 No. 38-00
Santafé de Bogotá - Colombia
Cabe destacar que la emisora está funcionando las 24 horas del día,
además ésta fué la emisora reportada como Unid por el Colega Yimber
Gaviria y correctamente reportada por el Dxer Mohrmann desde USA.
(Rafael Rodríguez, Bogotá, Colombia, May 7, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
[Colombia Stéreo is testing a new transmitter 24h, which will be
carrying the CREER {believe it!} network for nationwide coverage.
Location unknown, but believed to be at Mélgar, Tolima. Reports
wanted by fax or P-mail as above]
** COSTA RICA. Weekly Program Update for the week of May 7 - 13,
2000: RFPI Frequency Schedule:
42 meters: 6.970 MHz (AM): 0000 - 0800 (Output: 30 kW)
0000 - 1200 (UTC weekends)
19 meters: 15.050 MHz (AM): 1600 - 0600
13 meters: 25.930 MHz (USB): 1200 - 0600 (Output: 3 kW)
(RFPI) Note the nominal extension of both 25 and 15 to 0600. This
affects our WOR/COM broadcasts at 0300, 0330 and 0400 on Wed/Sat (gh,
DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GERMANY. DL - On 15 May 1900 the German PTT opened the first radio
service and "KBM" was the first call used by the station on Borkum
Island (IOTA Award: EU-047). Special call DQ0KBM will be aired on all
bands on modes from Borkum on 13-15 May to celebrate the anniversary.
(DL1BBR in 425 DX News #470 May 7 via Horacio A. Nigro, Montevideo -
Uruguay, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE [non]. Further observations of VOG relays via Delano:
The Saturday-only English hour ``For Hellenes Around the World`` was
reconfirmed May 6 at 1600 on 15455. It`s our only chance to catch up
on Greek news in English, tho aimed at the diaspora. Well-done, but
only wish the hostessperson would slow down and speak English more
distinctly.
``It`s All Greek To Me,`` the other weekly English hour, presenting
Greek-only music, opened Sunday May 7 at 1801:30 on 17705, shortly
after the frequency came on in Greek; claimed to be ``every Sunday at
6 p.m.``
Monday, May 8, I tuned in 15455 at 1200, the nominal start time, but
heard only a weak Chinese station. VOG/VOA became audible, and seemed
to have cut on rather than faded in, at 1205, as weak as the Chinee,
and very gradually built up, past a transmission break to fair level
by 1220, and good level by 1230 when the co-channel was no longer
audible but may have gone off. This was the process of sunrise
ionization over the Four Corners. I wonder if this 75-degree azimuth
from Delano is also engineered for a high vertical takeoff angle,
enhancing domestic coverage and producing the super-strong signals
here during the day on 15455, 17705 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** LIBERIA. President says Star Radio to remain closed: Text of
report by Liberian pro-Charles Taylor radio on 5th May
The Liberian leader has made it emphatically clear that as long as he
is president, the Star Radio station will remain closed. President
Taylor said he took an oath to uphold and defend the laws of Liberia,
and stressed that nobody will break the law of the nation. Speaking
at his regular monthly tête-à-tête today at the Executive Mansion in
Monrovia, Dr Taylor said the law of Liberia is clear that no foreign
country is permitted to own and operate a radio station in Liberia.
According to President Taylor, his government was only informed
through diplomatic note from the United States Embassy accredited
near the (?capital) that the USAID, through the US government, has
been providing some assistance to Star Radio station. He said the
Liberian government will only dialogue with the sole owner of the
Star Radio when it is owned by Liberians, but will not talk to any
half owner of the station. Source: Radio Liberia International,
Monrovia, in English 1900 gmt 5 May 00 (via BBC Monitoring May 8 via
DXLD)
** LIBYA [non?]. Glenn: I haven't heard anyone else point this out
yet, but the facts have been out in the news media for some time. The
transistor circuit board which allowed investigators to trace the
origin of the radio used in the Pan Am 103 bombing was sold to the
Libyans by a company named Mebo, Ltd. of Zurich. Many may recall that
Mebo was the company that owned the Radio Northsea International
radioship back in the seventies. Mebo stands for Bollier and Meister,
the two owners.
On an NPR piece this week, I heard an brief interview with Edwin
Bollier, who was one of the RNI owners. The subject was this circuit
board that they sold in some quantity to both the Libyans and the
East German Stazi (sp?) secret police, that somehow ended up in the
wreckage of Pan Am 103. Another interesting part of this association
is that the Mebo II, RNI's ship, was sold to Colonel Quadaffi after
it left the air in the mid-seventies (1975?). Finally, to hear what
RNI is up to today via a webcast, try the link at WBCQ's website at
http://wbcq.net. (Daniel Srebnick, May 7, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MONGOLIA. (Attention Prefix Hunters). A special event station will
be active May 12-14th from/near Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of
Mongolia. The callsign is JU1O. QSL via HA0HW either via the HA
bureau or direct to: Laszlo ``Laci`` Szabo, P.O.Box 24, Puspokladany,
H-4151, HUNGARY.
Also, look for several Italian operators to be active from Mongolia
from May 23rd to June 6th as JU1Y. Suggested frequencies are:
CW - 50110, 28015, 24895, 21015, 18075, 14015, 10105, 7005, 3505 and
1825 KHz
SSB - 50150, 28485, 24985, 21285, 18145, 14185, 7045, 3780 and 1840
kHz (KB8NW/OPDX May 8/BARF80 via John Norfolk, OKCOK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** NEW ZEALAND. R. New Zealand Frequency Schedule - 07 May to 03
September 2000
UTC kHz Primary Target Azimuth Days
1650 -1850 6145 NE Pacific, Samoa, Cook Islands 35' Monday to Friday
1850 -1950 11725 All Pacific 0' Monday to Friday
1950 -0705 17675 All Pacific 0' Monday to Friday
1955 -0705 17675 All Pacific 0' Saturday & Sunday
0705- 0959 11720 All Pacific 0' Daily
1000- 1205 11720 NW Pacific, Bougainville, East Timor, Asia 325'
Daily
Usual Closedown is 1205 UTC - however for occasional over-night
broadcasts to the Pacific for Cyclone Warnings our frequencies are as
follows -: 1205-1505 UTC 6100 kHz, 1505-1650 UTC 6145 kHz. The main
change for this new schedule is that 11725 is now listed for only
Monday-Friday. (RNZI website via Daniel Sampson, WI, May 7, DXLD)
** NEW ZEALAND. May 8th 11720 kHz RNZI @ 0704, a strong signal for
this new RNZI frequency heard at 0704 switch. Tuned in again at 1030
and New Zealand was battling adjacent channel QRM from RKI on 11715
(heard up to 11725). Later near the top of the hour WYFR's interval
signal attacked from 11725 making RNZI disappear in the background of
QRM from both sides. At 1104 RNZI switched to their East Timor beamed
extended transmission for New Zealand's peace keeping forces and a
boost in signal strength was evident here and was strong enough to
clear the remaining splatter from WYFR. (Pete Costello, NJ, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** NEW ZEALAND. Sun. 0306 on 17675 - RESOUNDING RADIO - A series
tracing the history of radio in New Zealand, produced and presented
by Jack Perkins. ``Politics, War and Progress: the Broad Picture 1935
- 1949`` (Pt. 3 of 10.) [Ed. Note: I am advised by RNZI that this
program was inadvertently not carried the last two weeks, but will be
starting this day. [= May 7] (John Figliozzi, swprograms via DXLD)
** PERU. I recently spent some time in Peru and seized the chance to
visit a few radio stations. Read all about the adventure at:
http://www.makelainen.com/dx/peru.htm 73 (Mika Makelainen, Finland,
hard-core-dx May 7) http://www.makelainen.com/dx/dxpedit.htm
Quite a story of hardship, persistence and dedication... (gh)
** RUSSIA. Hi Glenn, the report about Radio 1 (Odin in Russian) is
somewhat confusing, as all longwave transmitters of this program
inside Russia are already off and silent. The last remaining ones at
the Bolshakovo site in Kaliningrad area on 171 and at the Popovka
site near St. Petersburg on 234 was shut down on December 3rd 1999;
prior to that the other 171 kHz transmitters were silenced without
anybody taking notice of that in the foreign. Elektrostal is indeed
the exact site of the 171 kHz transmitter which served the Moscow
area. This town is a stronghold of steel industry, hence the name.
Inside Russia Radio 1 now most likely uses only a single AM
transmitter anymore, at Kupavna in Moscow area on 1305, otherwise
they are now on FM only. I would conclude from the report, that also
1305 alongside with lots of FM transmitters are to be silenced, too;
perhaps Radio 1 will maintain just single Moscow 72.92 FM anymore.
Radio 1 is also still transmitted in Belarus; certainly we can
proceed from the assumption that this happens for political reasons
without Radio 1 paying any transmitter rents. These rebroadcasts
includes not only a full coverage FM network but also the mentioned
longwave transmitter at Sasnovy, which is now the only one in Europe
on 171. I wonder what will happen from May 11th onwards when Belarus
will perhaps simply lose the Radio 1 feed from Moscow?
By the way, also the Moldovian Grigoriopol site (in North America
well-known for the VoR transmissions on 7125 and 7180/9665) includes
a 1000 kW longwave transmitter on 234, which is silent already for
years now. I hope this helps somewhat. Regards, (Kai Ludwig, Germany,
May 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TAIWAN. Tho there was a typo in the URL for RTI in DXLD 00-61, it
still doesn`t work when corrected (gh)
Glenn, Re the question in DXLD 61-00, the URL of RTI's Website has
changed slightly, and is now http://www.cbs.org.tw/rti/index.html I
will update the link in the RNW Hitlist on Monday. 73, (Andy Sennitt,
Radio Netherlands, May 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. Have the AFN SW relays finally ceased? At 1210 check
May 8, nothing on 12689.5 USB, nor on the others which may not have
propagated anyway at this hour, 6458.5 and 4278.5. Nor at 1448. Must
check further (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** UNIDENTIFIED. WBCQ-2 has some competition for 9330: May 8 at 1212
check past 1230, heard 5-character letter groups in mechanical CW at
moderate speed on 9331.0. This is the equivalent of numbers stations
using voice. While in voice, numbers are more distinctive and easier
to copy without errors, on CW letters are better than numbers, since
none of them take 5 characters, and long strings of numbers with
their similar formats can soon numb the mind (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX
LISTENING DIGEST) ###